What Millinocket needs to survive

Since its very conception, Millinocket has been a town held hostage to its economy by both its geographical isolation and its reliance on the papermaking industry.

At least back then the hostage holder was a benevolent benefactor, in the form of Great Northern Paper Co. It provided all the necessities, from camp lots to borrowed machinery and tools that enabled the citizens to construct their own homes, but more importantly, it provided jobs. And this system worked, for almost 100 years.

For the past 20 years, at the very least, between the challenges coming from overseas competition, but especially, the demise of the Big A dam project, Millinocket has instead become a town under siege.

In late 2000, an economic development council namely MAGIC (Millinocket Area Growth and Investment Council) was formed. This was even prior to the bankruptcy filing of the paper mill. Its proposed mission was to diversify Millinocket’s economy so as not to rely on one single industry.

To date MAGIC has not lived up to its original stated mission but rather has concentrated most of its efforts on questionable companies looking for grant monies which has left our town in financial distress, or on environmental, ecological or eco-tourist industries which provide mainly minimum wage employment that cannot support or local citizenry.

Our town councilors have tried to convince us that the issue is about economic development and not about MAGIC. Unfortunately, their views are not shared by the citizens. To them it most certainly is about MAGIC and its all too obvious failure to bring the promised job opportunities to Millinocket or to lend its support to many of our “local” entrepreneurs.

Instead they have brought in and supported a water-sensor company named Brims Ness. After receiving $1 million from the ME Technology Institute, the ME Science and Technology Foundation, the Small Business Administration, the federal government and private funds, another $70,000 for job training, a $50,000 start-up loan from Millinocket, a $250,000 state grant-loan, and after leaving behind $50,000 in unpaid rent to MAGIC, Brims Ness has picked up stakes and moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, to seek further funding, claiming it still needs about $1.5 million in start-up funds. This leaves Millinocket facing a $300,000 minimum debt – all thanks to MAGIC.

Unfortunately those who are in control are neither benevolent nor are they benefactors, but seem to be intent on eliminating the “local” populace by robbing them of their previous lifestyle. How they intend to accomplish this can readily be seen by reading Millinocket’s Comprehensive Plan which is required to be filed with the state of Maine and which has been scripted for the most part by MAGIC members.

For the last four years, the citizens of Millinocket have supported MAGIC with $250,000 per year. But then MAGIC got greedy and upped the ante to $50,000 while also accepting a $25,000 grant from the Wilderness Society, a known environmental group. A successful petition which ended in a referendum to reduce MAGIC’s funding to the original $25,000 passed overwhelmingly by the people.

This should have sent a message to the council that the citizens were having a problem supporting an economic council that was not bringing the promised jobs to the area.

MAGIC proceeded to request $80,000 for the current year and the majority of our council agreed. This resulted in two petition drives, both of which were denied by a majority of the council on technical grounds. One of these petitions is now being challenged by the citizens of Penobscot County Superior Court and paid for by those very citizens.

Meanwhile, gone are the promised jobs; gone are many of the life-long residents who willingly made sacrifices to pursue a lifestyle they loves and embraced. Soon freedom to hunt, fish and traipse through the woods will be gone. Relative freedom from crime, close relationships with friends and neighbors and a sense of community will also soon be gone.

These represent the values that were so important to those who made their homes here. In its place is a political and financial machine that appears destined to rob the citizens of Millinocket of all they hold dear and profit for only a very few, most of whom are not local people.

MAGIC is the driving engine of that machine. It has succeeded in obtaining $198,000 grant from the federal government through the office of Sen. Susan Collins. The purpose of this grant is to determine why our people have left and what would allow for their return. They have also instituted “The Katahdin Fund” hoping others will donate money for their cause.

Much controversy has arisen because MAGIC has not produced the jobs it promised. Perhaps that is not entirely MAGIC’s fault as it seems “economic development” groups throughout rural Maine are being forced to close up shop.

A Sept. 14 Bangor Daily News article points out the demise of the Lincoln Lakes Regional Development Corporation. Other articles suggest that economic groups elsewhere are failing. They are either too expensive to support or have offered few solutions to the problem of sustainable employment.

What Millinocket needs to survive is its own economic developer working in close concert with our town manager. It needs a revolving loan fund to assist “local” business people to help further our “local” economy. It needs an end to the political and financial machine that is now in place, which means an end to MAGIC.

But most of all, it needs jobs to support a lifestyle that is unique and one its citizens are willing to sacrifice in order to maintain.

Alyce Maragus is a resident of Millinocket.